A chara, – Whatever the rights and wrongs of ECT, it is unfortunate that psychologist Dr. O’Connor (January 25th) confuses “distress” with the savage, gut-wrenching, blackness of clinical depression.
Many of us who have been lucky enough to access the “medical logic of diagnosis, prescription, additional intervention and review” that he appears to demonise, have been given back our lives through the recognition of depression as a manageable biological derangement just like diabetes, rather than a failure to “make sense of” our problems. There is no making sense of the thoughts that invade one’s mind during a bleak depression. The associated stigma is perpetuated by such attitudes.
In a country with a frightening number of suicides, it is vitally important that those with depression are not afraid to seek help for a treatable illness because they are told that they are distressed, should be able to talk through it, and should fear the very care they deserve. – Is mise,